The government faces ongoing warnings of a rental property crisis as a consequence of its plans to “ring fence” tax losses.

The Property Institute of New Zealand is making the claim on Tuesday as a white paper proposes that the costs associated with owning a rental property, including interest, rates, insurance, maintenance could no longer be offset against other income as has been the case for many decades.

Institute chief executive Ashley Church is warning of an exodus of landlords from the property market.

He says the plan to “ring fence” property tax losses will significantly worsen the shortage of rental accommodation in the largest cities.

Mr Church says most investors make a loss on the day-to-day operation of their property in the early years but properties do eventually become profitable at which time tax is paid on that profit just like any other business activity.

So the ability to claim losses early on is offset by an eventual return to the taxman later on.

He says private Landlords provide the lions share of rental accommodation in New Zealand.

ACT leader David Seymour says this week marks six months in office for the Ardern-Peters coalition government and its indecision on fundamental housing reform is hurting New Zealanders.

On Monday the Salvation Army said rising rents were causing hardship for many New Zealand families.

“The government was elected to fix the housing crisis because National did nothing effective to ensure more homes were built,” says Mr Seymour.

“So far, cabinet has not even considered the idea of changing the rules that would allow the private sector to deliver more houses.

“It has been content to blame immigrants and prioritise a xenophobic foreign house buyer ban, which will do nothing for affordability.” End of quote.

So, who will Phil Twyford blame this time? He’s the minister. He is going to actually have to do something. This could get interesting.

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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.